


a forever home

by lifeinabeautifullight



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Domestic, F/F, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-04 21:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11563458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifeinabeautifullight/pseuds/lifeinabeautifullight
Summary: Kara gets Alex and Maggie a dog...and the little guy forms a special bond with Maggie.





	a forever home

It’s Wednesday and Alex is training the new recruits. Her phone rings in her pocket and the caller is important enough for her to answer, however not before giving an order to the ten or so rookies under her command.

‘Get into pairs and practice your takedowns. I’ll be back in five minutes and you can show me what you’ve got,’ she says as she exits the training room and answers the call. ‘Hey Kara.’

‘Hey, you were thinking about getting a dog, weren’t you?’

‘Yes. How?’

‘The shelter at Westpoint is closing down. I’ve spent all day helping to find shelters to take the dogs in…but there’s this one guy that no one wants. He’s old and his eyesight isn’t the best, but he’s still got a lot of love left to give. Wait, I’ll send you a picture.’

Her phone buzzes. Alex opens the message and smiles instantly at the brown and white, wrinkly faced bulldog. Not the German Shephard or Husky that she and her wife had been thinking of getting, but still. He was adorable and he needed a good home. ‘Hang on,’ she tells her sister before firing the picture, without any comment or explanation, to Maggie.

A reply comes within the minute. _‘Aw cute. Who do they belong to?’_

_‘Nobody. You want him?’_

_‘For real?’_

_‘For real. They’re shutting his shelter. Ours if we want.’_

It’s yet another quick reply. No hesitation whatsoever. _‘Hell yeah, I want him.’_

Alex leaves Kara to sort out the logistics and by the time she arrives home – their new home, a little two-bedroom place on the outskirts of the city with a yard – there’s three different colours and styles of leashes, five different brands of dog food, and enough toys to keep a pet store going for a week. Kara makes the introduction.

‘Murphy, meet one of your new mommies.’

Murphy pads slowly over to her but quickly warms to Alex, covering her face in slobbery kisses. ‘Easy there, boy,’ she laughs, wiping her face and, not so subtly, wiping his drool on him.

‘I saw that,’ Kara grins.

‘Shut it.’

‘When’s Maggie coming home?’

‘Seven. Her captain’s out of town today and she’s filling in for him,’ Alex replies as she pets her new housemate and, well as Kara said, kinda child – the only kind of child that she and her wife had ever really discussed having. ‘You want to stay to see them meeting, don’t you?’

Kara beams. ‘Duh.’

Sadly, there’s a pile-up on the interstate that Kara is called to just mere minutes before Maggie returns home.

‘Babe?’ She calls as she slides her bag off her shoulder. ‘I’m home, where’s our--.’

Their dog comes bounding towards her.

She drops to her knees smiling, not giving a single damn as he licks every inch of her face. ‘Hey buddy,’ she laughs as she tries to pet him, but he’s squirming as much as his tail’s wagging. ‘Hey dude, buy me a drink first? I’m not that sort of girl, I don’t even know your name yet.’

‘Murphy,’ Alex smiles as she watches them from a few feet away. ‘And he really likes you.’

‘I can tell that,’ she says as she pulls away. ‘Hey Murph, I need to go get changed. Why don’t you go give your other mommy some love?’

For the remainder of the night, Murphy stays close to Maggie and it’s not an isolated incident. It becomes normal. At first Maggie tries, tries to find ways to encourage him to give Alex just as much love and attention but it doesn’t work and Maggie feels bad.

Alex finds it hilarious. ‘It’s not your fault. He loves you!’

‘But I feel like he’s ignoring you.’

‘He’s not. He just likes you more, okay? It’s probably because you’re more his size.’

‘You’re two inches taller than me, babe.’

‘And don’t you forget it.’

Then Maggie finally accepts it, finally finds Murphy’s clinginess absolutely hilarious, and absolutely heart-warming. He always beats Alex to welcome home kisses, always tries to cuddle Maggie on the couch – although sometimes, she gently draws the line when she knows her girl needs the cuddles more – and he’s always, always sitting or sleeping at her side of the bed every morning.

Besides Alex, she’s never known this feeling of love. And she can’t imagine her life without it, or without him.

Until six months later, when life comes to a grinding halt and she’s in the vet’s parking lot, sobbing down to the phone to Alex because that pain and that blood in his urine is because there’s a big tumour on his bladder.

Alex comes within fifteen minutes, and holds her as she tries to explain the two options they have – a risky surgery that, given his age, he’s unlikely to survive, or one last day together before an everlasting sleep.

They heartbreakingly choose the latter.

That night they give him one last walk and one last feast. Kara comes over for one last hug and one last selfie – it was their tradition, and Kara had even given them a framed picture of her and Murphy for Christmas, which now sat proudly on the coffee table.

Murphy slept in their bed one last time.

Maggie lay there but didn’t sleep, instead holding onto him tight.

He wasn’t the smartest dog but he knew what was happening the following morning, refusing to budge as they went to leave to go to the vets.

There were tears in Maggie’s eyes as she crouched to his eye-level. ‘I know, Murph. I know.’

Alex rests a hand on her shoulder but stays silent.

They finally get him in the car. Maggie sits beside him in the backseat and cries.

She kisses repeatedly as they give him the pentobarbital that puts him to sleep, and she drops to her knees once his heart finally stops.

It’s a couple of days before she comes to terms with it and, over a coffee, opens up.

‘Murphy was like me.’

‘Small?’ Alex teases and it makes Maggie smile.

‘Yeah, yeah, short jokes are always funny,’ she remarks, gently elbowing her wife for her comment. ‘But no, seriously. He was a stray that nobody wanted. Just like I was.’

It had never dawned on Alex before but, now, their special bond made perfect sense. ‘Maybe he felt it.’

Maggie nods. ‘I always kinda thought he did. I’m glad we gave him a home. Everyone deserves a home. A family.’ She takes Alex’s hand. ‘Just like you gave me.’

Alex’s bottom lip trembles as she wraps an arm around her wife’s shoulders and pulls her close. ‘This home is here for you for as long as you want it.’

‘My forever home?’ Maggie smiles into Alex’s chest.

Alex nods. ‘ _Our_ forever home.’

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you thought in the comment box down below! and thanks for reading x


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